Computerized Health Assessment and Education for Adolescent HIV and STD Prevention in Health Care Settings and Schools

This report summarizes a number of computer applications from a decade of experience with computerized adolescent health assessments and automated health education in a large health maintenance organization, military adolescent clinics, detention facilities, health fairs, and public schools. Feedback from over 5,000 adolescents is given for patient responses to and acceptance of computerized health assessments and preferences for automated health education modalities, including multimedia. Implications of the computerized approach to assessment of adolescent health risk behaviors and the provision of automated health education and HIV/STD prevention are considered in terms of efficiency, reliability, and access to health screening and educational services.